Crossroads Grocery & Video expands

New beer cave, additional food items available
by Brita Adkinson
maple falls – Crossroads Grocery, located on the corner of Mount Baker Highway and Silver Lake Road in Maple Falls, opened an expanded area of their store in mid-June.
“We needed more space,” said Dave Halliday, who owns and manages the store together with his wife Jen. The Hallidays own the building which also accommodates the Mount Baker Baptist Church. They were able to increase the store space with 600 square feet by retrieving a part of the church premises that was less essential to the church’s activities.
The expansion enabled the husband-and-wife team to install a new, larger counter for fresh produce, including a lot of locally grown and organic produce, and now available daily. Dairy products are also on display in a new, larger counter with a larger variety.
The new space at the back of the store hosts a brand new beer cave – a chilled room filled with more than 200 different beers, including rare micro-brew, craft beers and foreign brand products such as Jamaican, Belgian and German beers. “Our range of beers has changed as much as changing from night to day,” said Halliday. In addition, the store expanded their wine products and now have more than 100 different wines available, and have also upped their movie rentals to 2,400.
“We’ve also increased our stock of gluten-free products,” Halliday said, adding many local people appreciate being able to buy gluten-free baking mixes, pizza crusts, pie crusts and other items.
The store accepts food assistance programs, including the Special Supplemental Nutritional Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC program).
“We currently employ 10 people on full-time and part-time basis,” Halliday said, “and we endeavor to provide employment for people who are permanent residents in our area.”
Jen Halliday, who manages the bookkeeping, makes her own brand of handcrafted soaps which are for sale at the store. Future plans include selling ski gear, fishing gear and bicycle parts. The Hallidays, who bought the store two years ago, said the reward for their long hours of work is to get to know the customers and be able to put something back into the local community.
For more information, contact Crossroads Grocery and Video at 599-9657. The store is located at the intersection of Mount Baker Highway and Silver Lake Road in Maple Falls and open seven days a week.